In March 1969, the Soviet Border Guard Used the most advanced T-62 tanks and powerful "Hail" rockets to illegally invade Zhenbao Island several times, which was severely defeated by the Border Guard Force of the People's Liberation Army. In retaliation against China, the Soviets ambushed a patrol in the Talitik area of Our army in Tacheng, Xinjiang, in August, killing more than 30 members of the patrol. The small boat of friendship between China and the Soviet Union was completely overturned. After that, the Soviet Union continued to increase its troops on the Sino-Soviet border, and the strength of the troops increased from 700,000 to 1.14 million.
On August 28, the Washington Star newspaper published a striking headline on the front page: The Soviet Union wants to carry out a surgical nuclear strike against China. After several comprehensive analyses of the situation, the Party Central Committee determined the risk of war. Thus, starting in September, the land of China entered a "people's war" to excavate "air raid shelters".
On October 14, in order to prevent the loss of a pot, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an order for the emergency evacuation of the leaders in Beijing, and decided to evacuate all veteran revolutionary comrades to other places by October 20. At the same time, many universities in Beijing are also moving out in an intense and orderly manner. The entire city of Beijing was on high alert.
Then, how did China and the Soviet Union, which were once good brothers of socialism, step by step come to the brink of war? Where were the leaders in Beijing evacuated? Why did the nuclear war, which was only one step away, go out at the last minute? What did this confrontation on the string end up for China? To understand the truth of the problem, we must start with the differences between China and the Soviet Union on ideological issues.
China and the Soviet Union were at odds with each other, and the Soviet Union was holding on to its own nuclear weapons
In February 1956, the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union sharply exposed the mistakes made by Stalin in leading economic construction, completely negated Stalin's great role in industrialization and the Great Patriotic War, and caused great shock and ideological confusion in the socialist camp. The Chinese Communist Party did not agree with such excesses by the CPSU. The differing evaluations of Stalin became the beginning of disagreements between the two sides on major issues.
Since the late 1950s, the contradictions between China and the Soviet Union have intensified. In addition to the clashes over ideological issues, what has led Sino-Soviet relations astray even more violently is the Soviet Union's vain attempt to exert military control over China and coerce China into serving its ambitions to dominate the world. In 1958, the Soviet Union proposed the establishment of a Sino-Soviet condominium long-wave radio station and a common fleet on Chinese territory and territorial waters. These demands, involving territorial sovereignty, have touched the anti-scales of the Chinese Communist Party. Chairman Mao later said: "The Sino-Soviet uprising was actually in 1958, and they wanted to control China militarily. ”
After 1958, the contradictions between China and the Soviet Union intensified, gradually reaching the point of irreconcilability, and even towards the confrontation of soldiers. Since the 1960s, the Soviet Union has continuously planned incidents on the Sino-Soviet border, creating more than 4,000 border conflicts. After the Treasure Island conflict, the Soviet Union stopped passenger trains on the Trans-Siberian Railway, all of which served the transportation of troops and military supplies.
The Soviet Union, which was on the offensive in the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, further expanded its ambitions and saw China as a threat from the East. Media such as Pravda, TASS and the military's Red Star have threatened that the Soviet Union is ready to preemptively strike China with powerful nuclear forces. Soviet Defense Minister Marshal Grechko threatened to take drastic measures against China. A graduate of the Eastern Department of the Frunze Military Academy and having lived and worked in China for 17 years, Marshal Trikov, assistant to the Minister of National Defense, has become more tough on China, advocating "eliminating the threat from China once and for all."
The Soviet Union at the end of the 60s was perfectly capable of being so arrogant. 4,000 nuclear warheads, more than 1,000 intercontinental missiles, easily crushing China's nuclear forces. At the time of the Treasure Island conflict, China did not have long-range missiles that could reach Moscow, and the number of nuclear warheads was only a fraction of that of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union, which was heavily charged with nuclear weapons, drew up a list of cities targeted by nuclear strikes. Beijing, as the heart and command center of China, is impressively listed. However, in the context of the US-Soviet game, if the Soviet Union wants to use force, it has to consider the position of the United States. On August 20, 1969, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Dobrynin, met with Kissinger and revealed to him the Soviet Union's plans to launch a war against China. The United States was shocked. A peaceful Asia-Pacific region is in line with the long-term layout of the United States.
Mobilization of the whole people, emergency evacuation
Nixon, who had just been president for a short time, decided to disclose the news to China. Given that there had been no formal communication channel between China and the United States for 20 years, Kissinger proposed that an unknown tabloid relay the news to China. The tabloid that was eventually selected was the Washington Star. The newspaper made dobrynin's conversation with Kissinger public, and for a time world public opinion was in an uproar.
In the report, the Soviet Union has prepared millions of tons of nuclear warheads, ready to carry out nuclear strikes on the mainland's nuclear test bases, Changchun, Shenyang and other heavy industrial bases. Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, is also among them.
This news caused a great shock to the Party Central Committee. Beijing immediately held an analysis seminar to discuss countermeasures. Although the situation was tense, Chairman Mao still said at the meeting: "It is not to fight a nuclear war, the atomic bomb is very powerful, but the contemptible people are not afraid." This is the powerful aura that Chairman Mao has always strategically defied the enemy.
The Party Central Committee issued a mobilization order to the whole country. A war preparation work of "digging deep holes, accumulating grain, and building walls high" quickly swept through everywhere. Just as the people of the whole country were preparing for war, China and the Soviet Union suddenly ushered in an opportunity for dialogue. The head of the Soviet delegation, Kosygin, hoped to take the opportunity of going to Vietnam to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh and have a face-to-face exchange with Premier Zhou. On September 11, Premier Zhou and Kosygin held a three-hour meeting at the airport. In this conversation, the two sides eliminated some misunderstandings and reached consensus on certain issues to a certain extent.
However, Kosygin, as the representative of the moderates, did not beat brezhnev, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. Sino-Soviet relations have not substantially improved as a result of the friendly talks between Premier Zhou and Kosygin. However, in order to prevent military conflicts in asia and to use China's strength to balance the Soviet Union, the United States began to take the initiative to engage with China.
Since the threat from the Soviet Union has not been lifted, starting on October 18, the entire PLA army carried out emergency evacuation according to Lin Shuai's "Order No. 1" and entered a state of readiness for war. For more than half a year, the troops were in a state of emergency readiness and evacuation.
After careful analysis of the Sino-Soviet situation, in order to protect the safety of the national revolutionary leaders and the safety of the lives and property of the people, the Party Central Committee decided to complete the large-scale evacuation work by October 20.
In fact, in order to prevent a possible surprise attack by the Soviet army, after the first battle of Zhenbao Island, Chairman Mao made the instruction to "prepare for war". In April, the political report of the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China placed combat readiness in a prominent position, proposing: "We must make full preparations, prepare them for a big fight, and prepare them for an early fight." Prepare them for a conventional war, and also for a nuclear war. After that, the whole army strengthened its combat readiness and put the preparation for war in the first place.
In September 1969, according to the movement of the Soviet army, the army's combat readiness began to increase. On September 10, the Central Military Commission's office issued an order to the whole army to strengthen combat readiness, "calling on the whole army to make preparations for defending against the enemy's surprise attacks, and the front-line troops of the northeast, north China, and northwest China and the sea (border) defense, as well as the air defense units in key areas, immediately begin to strengthen measures to prevent the enemy's surprise attacks, maintain a high state of alert, and deal with possible sudden situations at any time." During the National Day period, the military regions of the "Three Norths" even more "entered the first level of combat readiness" according to Lin Shuai's instructions. On October 3, the state of readiness was declared over. In mid-October, as the date when the Soviet delegation was scheduled to come to Beijing to participate in the border talks approached, the combat readiness of the whole army was once again upgraded.
On October 14, the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee followed Chairman Mao's instructions and decided to evacuate the leaders and other important organs and units in Beijing. On the same day, Chairman Mao left for Wuhan. On October 17, Premier Zhou Enlai informed the other leaders of where to evacuate for war and instructed them to bring their families with them. On the 17th, Xu Xiangqian and Vice Chairman Liu Shaoqi rushed to Kaifeng. On October 20, Dong Biwu, Zhu De, and Zhang Yunyi went to Guangzhou. Ye Jianying, Zeng Shan evacuated to Changsha. Nie Rongzhen went to Handan. Most of the rest of the leaders also left Beijing on the 20th. On October 21, Chen Yun left Beijing. On the 22nd, Deng Xiaoping went to Nanchang. Premier Zhou, who remained in Beijing, also left Zhongnanhai and moved to underground bunkers.
Chairman Mao specifically instructed that these leaders should be placed near railway stations in various places. "In case of a war, it is easier to find, and then you can come back to command." In addition to the leaders of the party and government organs, universities in Beijing are also carrying out the migration work in an orderly manner. Some of the students of Peking University were evacuated to Hanzhong, and some of them moved to Poyang Lake in Jiangxi. The University of Science and Technology of China has landed in Hefei, Anhui Province.
At the same time, the mainland's "three-line construction" has also entered a climax. Although the "third-line construction" has caused some waste of resources because of the rough planning, a large amount of infrastructure left behind during the construction, such as the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, the Xiangqian Railway, and a large number of industrial bases, has changed the long-term closed and backward appearance of the southwest region of the mainland, and has also provided a solid foundation for the later strategy of large-scale development of the western region and the strategy of poverty alleviation.
The atmosphere is relaxed and the crisis is lifted
China's posture and mobilization of the whole people at the expense of the First World War made the Soviet top brass, who knew the power of the people's war, begin to reconsider the plan of military strike against China. On October 20, 1969, just as China and the Soviet Union were on the verge of war, a Soviet delegation arrived in China and opened border negotiations with the Chinese side. Although the atmosphere at the negotiating table was relatively mild, the Chinese side remained highly vigilant and arranged for leaders scattered in other places not to return to Beijing for the time being.
It was not until the beginning of 1970 that the Sino-Soviet peace talks achieved substantial results, and a new diplomatic situation was opened between China and the United States, Chairman Mao believed that the alarm could be lifted, and leaders from all over the world returned to Beijing one after another. Xu Xiangqian, Chen Yi, Nie Rongzhen and Ye Jianying, four veteran marshals, used the relationship between the three kingdoms of Wei Shu and Wu to compare the strategic balance between China and the United States and the Soviet Union, which can be described as accurate.
But at the same time, many people believe that the United States has resolved this crisis for China. Such a statement undoubtedly ignores the growth of China's own power. On September 23, 1969, in response to a possible Soviet nuclear strike, the mainland conducted a 20,000-to-25,000-ton underground atomic bomb fission explosion test at the Malan base in Xinjiang, and six days later, a H-6 bomber dropped a 3 million-ton combat hydrogen bomb over the Malan base. These two intensive nuclear tests effectively countered the Soviet Union's nuclear deterrence. After all, the deterrent power of nuclear weapons is not only in numbers, but also in who can grasp the fighter and preemptively attack.
It is precisely because China has grown into a force to be reckoned with that the United States will take the initiative to seek engagement with China, resume "ambassadorial talks" between the two countries, and publicly support China on various occasions. This laid the groundwork for Kissinger's secret visit to China and Nixon's visit to China, and set the stage for Chinese diplomacy to enter a golden age in the 1970s.
Only by daring to fight can we stop the war, and China has never been afraid of blockade and the threat of force. Although "imperialism will not die in my heart", today's China has more confidence to believe that "all imperialism is a paper tiger"!